German Zoos

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kaysie

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I never tire of going to see Andrias or Siren in zoos... but I am appalled at the conditions they're kept in. At the Zoo in Düsseldorf (home of the amazing Andrias davidianus), there were at least 30 axolotls ranging from 2 inches to 12 inches in one tank (probably about 40 gallons, but a cube shape) with very little plant material, and the Andrias himself was in a very small tank. Refering back to Paul Bachhausen's picture: what you see is just the size of the tank (Sadly, my pics are <font color="ff0000">•</font><font color="ff0000">•</font><font color="ff0000">•</font><font color="ff0000">•</font>). Today at Wilhelma Zoo in Stuttgart, I was graced by the presence of Andrias japonicus (I didn't even know it was there!). This animal was kept in a tank about 2 meters long, with maybe 15 inches of water, and various fish (mostly carp-type). It was quite cramped as he didn't quite have room to turn around. Also, the scientific name gave me a laugh. I'd never even heard of it! Mega-something or other. Then further down the row was a beautiful Siren (with some noticable gill damage, and a big bite out of the tail) being housed with alligator gar and other large, pointy-toothed fish. One even ruined a lovely photo I had lined up. The axolotl setup in this zoo was a little better, having them nocturnal in a "cave" type setup.

Okay, thats my rant for the day. I'll post pics when I get back stateside.
 
That's a shame. Are the habitats for "higher animals" similarly poor in these zoos?
 
Düsseldorf had a few larger animals (such as penguins and sea lions) and apart from being a little crowded, I wouldn't find fault. But Stuttgart was terrible. They had 3 giraffes in a 30x20 meter enclosure with one tree (fenced off) and one small pond. They had 4 elephants in an enclosure not much bigger than that, with only one dead tree and no toys. Their penguins were displaying plucking behavior (where they pull out their own feathers, one was practically bald), and they had two adult hippos in a pool that wasn't even 4x4 meters. And stink, the whole zoo reeked. and the water was stagnant in practically all the enclosures. I know zoos aren't the best smelling places. But these just stunk. I was sad.
 
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